Mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a broadband wireless access technology based on Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 standard. Mobile WiMAX uses a scalable orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) scheme to deliver wireless broadband packet data services to mobile terminals.
A network entry process, in conjunction with the WiMAX technology, includes initial ranging, basic capability negotiation, authentication, MAC negotiation (registration), QoS negotiation (service flow initialization), and obtaining IP address via Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).
DHCP has been the way to obtain an IP address and the convention is an integral part of network services in many operating systems. The DHCP phase is among the last step of the network entry process. It generally takes several seconds over wireless networks to obtain an IP address. In addition, missing packets during DHCP also increase the latency of the process.